Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Gap Up Following Strong Earnings

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE – Get Rating)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Thursday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $333.61, but opened at $344.57. Adobe shares last traded at $343.97, with a volume of 1,403,460 shares traded.

The software company reported $3.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.12. Adobe had a return on equity of 36.74% and a net margin of 27.01%. The company had revenue of $4.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.84 EPS. Adobe’s revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADBE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Adobe from $350.00 to $425.00 in a report on Friday, December 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Adobe from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 16th. William Blair initiated coverage on Adobe in a report on Tuesday, January 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Adobe from $350.00 to $360.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Adobe from $337.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 19th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $414.78.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 132 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total value of $44,616.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,271 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,105,598. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 209 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.42, for a total transaction of $74,282.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,479 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,236,506.18. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 132 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total value of $44,616.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,271 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,105,598. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,265 shares of company stock worth $9,067,344 in the last quarter. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Adobe during the 4th quarter worth about $1,757,029,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Adobe by 115,991.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,248,225 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,093,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,245,427 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Adobe by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,804,275 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $3,299,433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,471,861 shares in the last quarter. Public Investment Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 2nd quarter valued at about $419,981,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Adobe by 77.9% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,675,704 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $560,892,000 after acquiring an additional 733,598 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.36% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Trading Up 5.9 %

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $352.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $334.30. The stock has a market cap of $162.01 billion, a PE ratio of 34.98, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

About Adobe

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Adobe, Inc engages in the provision of digital marketing and media solutions. It operates through the following segments: Digital Media, Digital Experience, and Publishing and Advertising. The Digital Media segment offers creative cloud services, which allow members to download and install the latest versions of products, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe InDesign, as well as utilize other tools, such as Adobe Acrobat.